Quick guide to character creation

Determine abilities.

Your selection will increase 2, 3 or all 6 of your abilities, so don’t forget to add those.

Choose a class from the Player’s Handbook.

Calculate your starting gold.

This is based on your class; taivaan elves gain additional starting gold. You’ll find your total on page 143. Buy equipment, which you can find in Chapter 5: Equipment, starting on page 143. Don’t forget that you can roll for or choose a single item from the Trinkets table, on page 160. I’ll be using these as story hooks.

Calculate armor class and hit points.

At this point, you have enough information to calculate your derived stats: armor class and hit points. For AC, use the guidelines on pages 7 and 144. For hp, find your class’s hit die; you’ll gain that many hit points. (For example, if your class uses a d10 for hit dice, you’ll have 10 hp.) Then add your Constitution modifier to that total.You’re now done with the crunchy portion of your character!

Choose your alignment.

This is very important! We’re not playing an evil campaign, so don’t choose Chaotic Evil. Any other alignment is on the table, as long as you can live in a civilized society. Remember that, in Dungeons & Dragons, your alignment is more than just a general description of your morality and ethics: It’s a representation of your spiritual being. (There’s a reason there are spells like Protection from Good or Evil.)

Choose a background.

Backgrounds are more than flavor: They give you perks. They start on page 127.

Flesh out your character.

Think of a name. (I’m going to provide about 10 examples on each race’s page.) Figure out basic details, such as gender, height, weight, age and general appearance. There’s some great tips on creating a memorable character in Chapter 4: Personality and Background, starting on page 121. And feel free to select or roll on the tables provided in your background. There’s no shame in randomizing parts of your character, and you can create some really memorable combinations that way.

Some notes

Feats are in 5th edition, and they’re pretty powerful. You’re not going to be rocking too many of them, though: When you’d gain an Ability Score Increase, you can instead gain a feat. It’s a tough choice! You can find them on page 165.